1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the storage of granular material such as animal feed, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for distributing granular material within a container.
2. Description of the Related Art
In various industries such as those involving agriculture and manufacturing, it is often necessary to store relatively large amounts of granular material. In agriculture, for example, it is often necessary to store substantial quantities of feed for animal husbandry operations. When used in such industries, the granular material is often initially loaded into an opening located at the top of a container which is used for temporary storage of the granular material. The granular material is then later removed from the container immediately prior to use through an opening located at the bottom of the container.
Depending on the nature of the granular material that is being stored, there are often difficulties associated with using such containers. For example, granular material may often include a number of different constituents which tend to separate when loaded into a container. For example, feed for chickens generally includes a fine constituent which tends to be located in the center of the container while the container is being loaded, as well as a coarse constituent which tends to be located near the walls of the container when the container is being loaded. Because the constituents separate in this manner when they are loaded into the container, it is not generally possible to remove the granular material from the container with the same proportion of constituents as was present when the granular material was loaded into the container. In animal husbandry operations, this separation of the constituents of the feed may typically cause lower productivity. Accordingly, there is a need for substantially uniformly distributing the constituents of the granular material within the container.
In addition, granular material which is loaded into a container may not be evenly distributed within the container in that there may be a large variation in the height of the granular material around the uppermost region of the container. Not only does this reduce the effective storage capacity of the container, but the areas within the container which are not filled with granular material allow moisture to accumulate which tends to cause the granular material to degrade to various processes such as by the formation of mold. Accordingly, there is also a need for substantially evenly distributing the granular material within the container.
Various methods and devices have been developed in an effort to distribute granular material entering a container. As shown in FIG. 1, one particular type of device, generally known as a spreader, has been used for distributing grain within a grain bin. Such a spreader is typically located at the upper region of the grain bin and includes a slide which is rotated by a motor. As the granular material is delivered to the slide, the granular material flowing along the slide is distributed at various locations within the grain bin.
While such a spreader has been used generally successfully in distributing grain with a grain bin, there are nevertheless several disadvantages associated with such a spreader. For example, the use of a motor to rotate the slide necessarily increases the cost of the spreader. In addition, the use of a motor to rotate the slide tends to make the operation of the spreader susceptible to motor failure and therefore less reliable. Furthermore, it is not generally easy to determine whether or not the motor driving the slide has indeed failed thereby causing the slide not to rotate because the slide and the motor are generally hidden from view. Finally, such a spreader has generally only been associated with the distribution of grains in grain bins and has not generally been used to distribute animal feed in feed bins.